EXCLUSIVE: David Frigerio, one of the screenwriters behind the 2014 Sundance Film Festival title The Signal, has sold an untitled sci-fi pitch to Paramount Animation, which one source close to the project bills as “tonally Cars set in space.” Paramount provided no comment on the deal. Paramount Animation currently claims the second highest-grossing title for the Melrose lot this year with The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water ($311.6M), after Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation ($680M worldwide). The next family title up for Paramount Animation is Monster Trucks, which is set to debut March 18.

Sci-fi thriller The Signal wasdirected by William Eubank and starred Laurence Fishburne and Olivia Cooke. Focus Features released the film in June 2014, making $601K. The Signal followedthree kids on a cross-country trip in the Southwest. They are drawn to an isolated area by a computer genius, but everything soon goes dark with one of them awaking to a living nightmare. Frigerio also is reteaming with Signal’s William Eubank and Carlyle Eubank on the sci-fi action adventure TauTona at Warner Bros.Frigerio is repped by Paradigm, Underground and Mike Weiss at Abrams, Garfinkel, Margolis, Bergson.